122 



Report of the State Geologist. 



along Pleasant brook, but none of the outcrops are favorable for collecting, 

 and it is very likely if the rocks were opened to any extent that fossils would 

 be found. 



This is supposed to be the most eastern locality of the Tully limestone 

 observed by Vanuxem, for he said, in describing the localities of this rock : 

 "The first point going west is on the turnpike from Sherburne to De Ruyter, 

 about eight miles from the former village. It appears in a low side hill, 

 forming the bank of the creek where the road crosses it. About four layers 

 are exposed, ranging by the side of the creek." 1 Again, in describing the 

 geology of Chenango county, Vanuxem wrote: "The Tully limestone was 

 seen in but one locality at the northwestern part of Smyrna, on the road to 

 De Ruyter village, where the road crosses the west branch of the Chenango." 2 



XVIII A 1 . In Pleasant brook and along its bank, about one-half mile 

 above the first outcrop of Tully limestone, are black argillaceous shales, which 

 form a bluff fifteen feet in' height on the south bank of the creek. The shales 

 weather to very thin pieces, and in lithologic characters resemble closely the 

 Genesee slates as exposed on Cayuga and the other lakes of weslern central 

 New York. The shale is so black that some years ago an excavation was 

 made in the hope of finding coal. No fossils were found by me. Between 

 the Tully limestone and the lowest layers of the shale on the creek the rocks 

 are covered for some distance, the shales being about thirty-rive feet above 

 the last outcrop of the limestone ; then there are at least fifteen feet of black 

 shales, and next, following a small stream up the hill to the south of Pleasant 

 brook for about twenty-five feet, the rocks are covered and sandstones and 

 shales occur. 



XVIII A s . The sandstones, which are of a dark gray color, weathering 

 to a rather brownish tint, alternate with greenish shales. Fifty feet of the 

 shales and sandstones occur along the run and reach the brow of the hill. 

 Along the upper part of Pleasant brook the hills are much lower than in the 

 vicinity of Smyrna village. The thin sandstones of these rocks show on the 

 upper surfaces numerous specimens of Fucoides graphica, Van., and in general 

 lithologic characters are similar to the shales and sandstones constituting 

 the Sherburne formation in Cortland and Tompkins counties. The base of 

 these Sherburne rocks is about seventy-five feet above the top of the Tully 

 limestone, or barometrically 360 feet above the New York, Ontario and 

 W'estei ii railroad station at Smyrna, making the altitude approximately 1,485 

 feet A. T. 



1 Geology of New York, Part III., p. 164. 

 » Ibid., p. 292. 



